For large and small businesses, doctors, hospitals and nursing homes, the 2005 session of the Georgia General Assembly was a spectacular success.  We finally passed sweeping civil justice reform, adopting legislation that had been bottled up for approximately 20 years.

 

During the first 18 days of the 2005 legislative session, both the Georgia House and Senate adopted a tort reform measure that will bring much-needed balance to our legal system -- a system that has become overrun with frivolous lawsuits and jackpot justice. That, in turn, has hurt everyone from the country doctor to the neighborhood hardware store.

 

We were able to accomplish this because of a new era which swept into Georgia after the 2004 elections. Two years prior, the state Senate went in the GOP column.  And for the first time in 134 years, Republicans took control of the state House of Representatives. As a result, the stage was set and we struck while the iron was hot, so to speak.

 

We knew that civil justice reform could have a tremendous impact on all Georgians.  We chose not to frame the debate in the stereotypical “doctors vs. lawyers” battle which is so often portrayed by the media and trial lawyers, who fatten their wallets on such litigation. Instead, we let every Georgian know it is an issue that impacts each of their pocketbooks.

 

Tillinghast Towers Perrin, a well-known actuarial firm, documented that consumers throughout the country are paying an estimated $850 to $1,000 each in “litigation taxes” annually.

 

 What are “litigation taxes,” you ask?

 

They are the extra fees built into the cost of prescription drugs, new cars, playground equipment, health insurance premiums and even the food we eat to buy insurance protection from potential civil lawsuits.

 

Businesses of every stripe raise prices to pay for skyrocketing liability insurance to protect against the overly litigious in our society. Unfortunately in today’s world, trial lawyers have convinced the public that when mistakes happen – even innocent mistakes – someone has to pay.

  

Senate Bill 3 – now Georgia law -- will go a long way toward discouraging lawsuits across the board, not just in the medical arena.

 

SB 3 includes a provision known as “proportionate liability,” which provides that multiple defendants in a lawsuit only pay their portion of responsibility. For example, if a drunk driver runs through a stop sign and hits another driver, if the jury finds the drunk driver 99 percent responsible and the construction company that put up the sign only 1 percent responsible because of poor signage, then the company only pays 1 percent of the judgment – even if the drunk driver is uninsured or broke.

 

The legislation also encourages parties to settle cases sooner by requiring a party to pay legal costs if they don’t accept a reasonable settlement. We’ve also adopted federal rules of evidence regarding what is permissible in court cases so we keep “junk science” out of the courtroom.

 

Expert witnesses also now have to truly be experts. No more chiropractors testifying against neurosurgeons, for example.

 

Important to the medical community within SB3 is a provision that protects emergency room physicians from lawsuits. The legislation also permits physicians to apologize for mistakes without the apology being considered an admission of guilt in court. And, the Legislature agreed to an aggregate cap on non-economic damages (or pain and suffering) of slightly more than $1 million.

  

The cap breaks down like this: $350,000 for the physician involved in a case and $350,000 for up to two facilities involved in a case. We have no cap on economic damages, which would cover the medical expenses, health care costs and lost wages of a working individual, a senior citizen, a child or even a stay-at-home Mom. All can recover economic damages.

 

I decided to get involved in the civil justice reform effort because it has become so personal for so many people. On the floor of the House, one member told the story of  Zinda McDaniel, a Southwest Georgia radiology tech and nurse who used to travel to rural communities on a mobile mammography coach bus.

 

Because of the increasing number of lawsuits, no radiologist would read mammograms anymore. McDaniel and her colleagues had to shut down the mobile unit. Today, many women in that part of our state are at risk for breast cancer because they are not getting the test. We had to do something.

 

From the floor of the House, I too tried to humanize this issue by telling the story of Alvin Bailey. Alvin, a 16-year-old student from a rural Georgia high school would have lost his life two years ago because his local emergency room planned to close. Due to a last-minute appropriation from the county, it remained opened. Just days later, Alvin had an unusual allergic reaction known as “anaphylactic shock” that nearly killed him.

 

Had his local emergency room closed, he would not have made it to the next closest hospital 30 minutes away, where he was saved from full respiratory arrest. Alvin, accompanied by his family and friends, sat in the balcony as we adopted tort reform, thankful that this legislation will help keep emergency rooms open throughout Georgia so they can save lives like Alvin’s.

 

Having access to health care in times of crises is not just important for patients and their families but also for businesses interested in health care accessibility when deciding to locate in a state.

 

 We were able to pass this historic piece of legislation because of several factors: a change in political climate; a new Speaker of the House who was willing to appoint a special committee to examine this difficult issue; and because we framed the debate in a way that legislators and the public could understand why change was necessary. We made civil justice reform a user-friendly issue.

 

I’m proud of my colleagues in the House and Senate and our Governor, Sonny Perdue, for working together as a team, setting their sights on the goal and getting the job done.

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